What I'm Working On ... A Many Faceted Answer for February

People are always asking me what I'm working on. This is a complicated question for me to answer because I am usually doing about a billion different things, in different realms, most of which is not what they would consider "Art". There is usually at least one major organizing project going on. I have a home project "to do" list that's about 200 items long and mostly just waiting for the budget to do it. I am always thinking of new things I want to try in the studio, and I've been writing these down, as it's not really time for me to create right now. I am gathering ideas and energy right now. But that's doesn't mean I'm not going on a whole bunch of field trips to look at stuff and get inspired. I have been doing that almost once a week.

So in an effort to answer the question, "What are you working on?" I thought I'd just take you on a little tour of what I've been doing in February.

Hanging out at the National Gallery of Art

Winter is the best time of year to visit the museums on the National Mall. There are hardly any tourists, (due to our crappy winter weather) so you may be the only person in that entire section of the museum. It's heaven! When I have been going lately, I have worn my "Art Geek" hat. I've been looking for guidance from the Masters, be they Renaissance, Dutch, Modern, or other.

 The layered colors just killed me when I saw this huge piece, Ocean Park No.61,  by Richard Diebenkorn. I had seen it in a book, but I had no idea it was 10 ft by 8 ft! And it just glows, like a pearl. It gave me all sorts of ideas about layering different concoctions of chalk paint and glazes to get different effects; how I could mix pigments into wax to make a glaze become iridescent or pearlized. See what I mean about Art Geeking?

In the Dutch section, I was struck by how Jan Steen used different colors in lighter and darker shades to show the folds of the cloth in his merry painting, "The Dancing Couple." For some reason, that idea is completely revolutionary to me. And when I was telling my very science geeky 14 year old about it, she mentioned that one could take advantage of the Doppler effect and have things closer to you be redder and things farther be bluer to trick the eye into seeing depth. I love it when life just teaches you from random directions.

And then there's Andrew Wyeth. I don't know what it is about this man's paintings, but they have haunted me with their mystery and beauty since I was introduced to Christina's World in 8th grade. In this one, Wind From the Sea, I was looking at how he created the sheerness of the curtains. The more I looked for shading and color clues, (picture me leaning right up to the canvas as the security guard inches closer and closer nervously) the more I realized there weren't any. He simply painted the lines of the curtains and then left at at that. Remarkable effect, wouldn't you say? Transparent looking because there is no paint there? Brilliant! 

See? This is why I go look at other people's art. Because I would never think of this this stuff. Once you figure out what they've done, it seems obvious. But it's the thinking of it in the first place that's the trick. So I just file it all away in the Mental Cauldron and it swims around in there until it decides to combine with something else and emerge again as a loosely formed idea.

Making My Own Chalk Paint

I have been toying with this idea ever since reading this post from Cottage Instincts. So this week I actually tried it. I can't tell you my results, as I am teaching a class on it this coming April 5th (more on this soon. I am super excited about this class!), but I will say it made a mess, and that's always a good thing in my book. 

As a part of my class, the good people at Websters sent me wax and mix in samples for all the students in the class! They are the best! Check them out here. And I promise to do a full review of their products as soon as I have a chance to use them. What's not to love about new brands of art supplies?

Making Things Out of Other Things

Neither of these is a great photo, but they give you an idea of what 

my inner up-cycling bug has been up to lately.

I (well, DK and I. He helped me a lot on this one) made a curtain rod out of pipe conduit. 

I couldn't stand the vertical blinds in my basement any more, both because they were ugly and mostly because my kids never shut them the right way and they were breaking. So DK and I took them down and replaced them with a pipe conduit curtain rod inspired by this hilarious post from Lynne Knowlton's blog Design the Way You Want to Live and some Ikea cotton drapes. 

And don't worry. I have full tutorials in the works for building the curtain rod (you get to use the pipe cutter at Home Depot!), hemming the super long drapes, and adding big fabric stripes to the drapes. Obviously, that last one hasn't happened yet, due to a disagreement with my sewing machine. It needs to go see the sewing machine doctor and then we will resume our merry course together.

I also stripped a tree stump I saved from my friend Rodney's 

wood pile and made it into a plant stand.

I got this idea from my dear friend Brandi's excellent blog, Don't Disturb This Groove. Check the awesome tutorial out here. Brandi's tutorial is so good,  I don't need to write another one here. 

She and I are Instagram buddies and I was completely taken when she posted her awesome "after" pics of this project. I had the stump in my studio, curing. I tripped on it one day and decided the time had come. So off came the bark, and out came the bleach. "Worth it, but nasty" is all I have to say about the process, especially after cleaning out my tub. I also ended up sanding the stump quite a bit after it was dry, which she doesn't cover in her tutorial. I prefer the lighter inner wood to show, as opposed to the darker wood near the bark. And her stumps had no bark to begin with. Lucky!

Painting Things Really Bright Colors

This was one of my birthday presents. My sister always sends me the things that I can't really justify buying, but that I can't live without. This print was just calling to me (It's by Vin Zzep. I like all of his stuff. You can see it here) I knew exactly where I was going to put it; to the left of my desk, so I could stare at it when I got writers block and could pretend to frolic in the grassy fields under the giant fish with a crown. Totally normal, right?

I ran right out and bought a frame at Walmart and got it home and framed it up. And all I could think was "I like this, but the frame needs to be red." So back to Walmart I go, to the blessed spray paint aisle. A little primer, a little spray paint, and Voila! The perfect frame for a flying fish!

And the other day, I was sitting in my chair in the living room looking at my front door. I just KNEW it needed to be electric orange red. So up the paint chips went. DK was leaving town for the week and he made me promise I wouldn't paint it until he got back. So I agreed to just mess with paint chips in various locations until he got back. 

Let's just say 4 coats of paint were on the door and dry within 2 days of his return. And I LOVE it! It makes me feel like it really is MY house. (Tomato Red by Benjamin Moore Aura paint, for those interested.) 

It looked like ketsup on top of the can, and DK said it reminded him of tomato soup, so now our door has been named "Campbell." Gotta love my kids. Who names the front door?

While all this paint chipping was going on, I brought home some aqua chips as well, just in the name of being thorough. I had become entranced by Sherry and John's new entry way from Young House Love here. (Do you think I read enough blogs?) And yes, I have total Moravian Star light envy, but that's another story.

Long story short, I hated the aqua for the front door, but loved it for the laundry room/garage door. DK hadn't extracted any laundry room "no painting" promises, (it's the laundry room for heaven's sake) so I painted a few base coats with paint I had and ran to Benjamin Moore to get a sample of Fairy Tale Blue the day after he left. And I told him he'd have to figure out what I had painted when he came home.With me, that could have been anything. 

I am in love with it, but I can't decide what to do with the wall color, as the many paint swatches indicate. The existing taupe is pretty trashed. And while it looks nice and all, I'm just not a taupe girl.

So that's the rundown. It sounds so much more exciting telling you guys about it than it actually was. 

The funny thing is, the project I am most happy about was 

sorting through all the out-grown, hand me down clothes!

Notice the clear labeling and the uniform containers. It is ridiculous how happy I am about this.

I went through nine big boxes or bins of clothing and trashed or donated 4 bags of stuff, sent some to my sister, labeled and binned the rest for my younger kids as they grow. I have wanted to do this for a YEAR. And now it's done. 

There is such joy in "Done".

What have you guys been doing?

Talk to you soon,

CM Shaw

PS. If you find that I don't talk enough here and you need some more, 

you can follow my Pinterest boards here

Xiaosheng Bi - Discovering a Porcelain Garden

I don't know about you, but I have a weakness for glass in its myriad forms. I love how the light reflects off of it and how color is so deep and shallow and layered all at the same time. And I like how it feels to the skin: cold, smooth, hard.

When I get in my glass revelry, I usually don't think of ceramics. While I love a good turquoise or cobalt blue glaze, things fired in a kiln and made of dirt fill a different spot in my mind. I generally think of them in terms of "texture".

Well that all changed when I walked past the studio of Xiaosheng Bi, 

a master potter, who works miracles with porcelain.

I happened upon his studio at the VisArts center, where I saw this exhibit by Lauren Boilini and this exhibit by Michael Sellmeyer. Along with their galleries, the VisArts center also has studios that juried artists can use. They are lovely 2nd floor spaces with huge windows and white walls and great light. Super dreamy. Maybe when I grow up, right?

He was right across from the Michael Sellmeyer gallery and as I walked out, I just kept staring at the flowers growing out of his ginger jars. And there were more inside, and the door was open, so I walked in. At first I didn't realize he was there. Eventually, I noticed him by the sink. I probably mumbled something about how much I admired his work (I find flattery is always an excellent segway when one has done something awkward) and somehow I got him talking about his methods. 

You always want to get an artist talking about his methods, if you can. That's where the joy is for them. You can feel the energy building off them as they talk about creating. Watch their eyes as they talk. They look at the things they've made and see them in all the stages of creation. It's magical.

Each of these ribs was carved out of the clay by hand to just the right 

depth and width by loosely following a bendable ruler. 

I asked about working with celedon glazes and he told me the kiln he was using was tricky, because it was electric and most kilns are gas fired. This changes the outcome of the pieces and is less predictable. He has to use special kinds of celedon to make it work. When I commented on the clarity of the glaze, he told me he only uses the whitest raw Chinese porcelain clay. "Isn't that super expensive and rare?" I asked. "Yes it is," he replied, "but it allows me to get the colors I want to show through." Fair enough.

I am always curious if an artist favors certain pieces of their work. So I asked Bi what his favorite piece was. He looked around the studio and scratched his head and said, "Well, I love them all." After thinking another minute, his eyes lit on a shelf near his desk  covered with celedon tea cups with delicate inky blue designs on them and he smiled and said, "But I think this technique is very pretty. I love these colors together."

He told me how he loves their simple shape, and the fact that they are so obviously not machine made. You can tell he finds great pleasure in what he makes as he hold them in his hands and turns them to show what he considers their most pleasing side when I ask. He is a very modest man, and I realize I have asked enough questions about his personal opinions. 

So I change tactics and point to his desk to have him tell me about what inspired the gorgeous creations there. He told me that formal Chinese gardens are the basis for most of his ideas. The pedestals here are reflective of the lava rock used in a garden as a rough contrast to the smoother elements of grass and water.

And the same tension of smooth and rough works beautifully in ceramic as well. All the disparate elements work together to emphasize and balance one another. The rough base against it's smoother top. The round, but layered stripes to the simpler flat base. The flowers at the top, jagged like the base, but made of smoother, more delicate things. It all just works so well. And the more you look at it, the more you see the subtle beauty of it. 

I did say he was a Master, right?

And the flowers, it is so hard to imagine that they are really made of clay.

The centers are rolled between the hands into narrow "snakes" about 1/8" in diameter, and then wrapped with another piece of flat, paper thin porcelain that makes the petal. Each portion of the flower is delicately glazed to best reflect is natural, yet idealized form. The intricacy really takes your breath away. 

Oddly enough my favorite thing in the studio had nothing to do with flowers.

I couldn't quit staring at this tea cup. I loved the roughness of the design against the "just barely there" aqua of the glaze. It was hypnotic. I still think about it, a month later. Bi told me that he had intended a smoother finish, but left the clay in the air too long and it had started to harden. When he cut it, it cracked and buckled, but he liked the effect, so he went ahead and fired it anyway. I'm so glad he did. It brings me such delight to look at this photo and think of all the yin and yang involved in this piece. So much serenity in the tension.

One of the miracles of porcelain is it's sheerness. The cup you see above is the same one I love. Despite the thickness of the sides, you can still see the light through it. And don't you love that little pool of celedon glaze at the bottom? Makes. me. weak.

After swooning I bit, I pulled myself together to see what other wonders awaited.

This piece was painted with a glaze that protects any spot it covers from being removed. Bi said he paints this on and then uses a liquid to remove a certain portion of the uncovered clay to create the relief design you see. The glaze gathers in the lower areas, accenting the white design. I am still geeking out that it wasn't carved.

Here are a few more pieces done with the same technique, but fired without a glaze. I love the matte white. It looks so modern, despite being done by a man trained in techniques that go back thousands of years. And it shows you just how white the clay he uses is.

This piece was done with a similar technique to my tea cup. Except this time, Bi let it harden on purpose to recreate the effect. I thought the penguins were charming, with their tiny little eyes. This piece is mid process and still needs to be glazed and fired. 

Here's another piece from the same series that was finished. 

Don't you love all the variation in color as the glaze gathers in the nooks and crannies?

My poor iPad had a hard time there trying to decide what to focus on. Sorry about that.

With so much beauty, how do you choose just one?

There were so many other things I wanted to ask, but I had only paid for an hour of on-street parking and my time was up. 

Sadly, I had to go. 

But I am so happy I took the time to ask what I did. I had forgotten that a balance of tensions is what makes the serenity of an Asian garden. And I had never thought of porcelain as a source of light. Or a tea cup as a metaphor for nature. Such wonderful ways to think about things.

And when I get a bit more allowance, that tea cup is mine!

Talk to you soon,

CM Shaw

What have you all done lately that changed the way you thought about something?

Leave me a comment and tell me your story.

By the way:

Here is an article from the Chicago Tribune with a lot more info about the techniques used by Xiaosheng Bi. If you didn't believe me before that you were looking at the work of a master, you will after reading the article.

Here and here are two more articles about his work.

3 Things That Actually Work

You know how sometimes I go on these excellent adventures and see these amazing things and post these fabulous pictures? 

Yeah, this post isn't anything like that.

This post is a list of things that actually work the way they are supposed to in my home. Ideas, that when implemented, radically changed my life for the better.

Things like, Excellent Idea #1 a Three Bin Wall Mounted Paper Holder.

This is one of those things I wish I had thought of about 5 years ago, but didn't. I have 3 children ages 14-10-6, and they go to 3 different schools. Can you say paperwork nightmare? Most of the time there is a huge pile of papers and mail on my kitchen table. I hate it. Really A Lot. 

I have the most beautiful hammered copper table in my kitchen. It reminds me of home and is one of my personal treasures. I never see it because of all the papers. So I sat down one snow day afternoon while the kids were out frolicking and thought about what I could do to lose the paper mess. By some miracle, I thought of wall mount bins! And after a fairly exhaustive search across the Internet, I found the perfect metal 3 pocket model at The Container Store. (It is called the "Silver Mesh Wall Ladder" and you can get it online here.)

  

One trip to Tyson's Corner later and I had my wall ladder. It was the last one in the store and I ran to it, held it in my arms like a lover, and snarled at anyone else even thinking about looking at it. Then I ran to the register and said, "I have found the Meaning of Life in this wall mount folder holder. Will you keep it safe for me while I look around some more?" 

I bet they get that all the time.

Once home, I realized it would be helpful to have names on the pockets. I already had these small chalkboards made out of old wooden coasters, so I just drilled some holes and wrapped some wire and viola! Chalkboard name plates. Hip and up-cycled. It makes me giddy.

 

It was also easy to install. It came with anchors and screws. 

Little ruler and level, little cordless drill, little hammering of anchors and screwing of screws

and then...

POW! paper problems solved.

 

It makes me happy every time I walk by and see the papers there and not on my table. 

Every. Single. Time.

Excellent Idea #2: the Blue Buffet

I don't know how many of you sew, but I only sew on occasion. And with my art studio in the utility room, having a designated craft room seems kinda nevergoingtohappen. So I just kept my sewing machine on a shelf in the studio and schlepped it upstairs to the dining room when I wanted to sew. 

Well you can imagine what happened. The sewing machine just ended up hanging out in the dining room. In it's original white and mint green cardboard box. Not so attractive in a taupe and cobalt blue dining room. Sometimes I would actually put it away and then talk myself out of sewing so I didn't have to go all the way down there to get it.

At the same time all this schlepping and avoiding was going on, my two younger children had decided that doing crafts on my dining room table gave them a sense of purpose in life. Now, I would not have minded this at all except that they never put anything away. We had mountains of papers and craft supplies and glue and pompom balls and glitter all over the expanse of the table.

 

After a few years of screaming at the kids to clean up all their crap pondering things rationally, it occurred to me that I might solve both problems at the same time. I simply needed more storage in the dining room than the two small drawers and open shelf of my side table currently provided. After getting beat out on "the perfect thing" by a quicker shopper at my favorite thrift store, I pulled out the big guns and headed for Craigslist. Enter my fabulous vintage mahogany buffet.

Yes, I painted it. Seven layers and two weeks worth of love to be exact. But the mahogany was just too dark and this is the blue dining room. And I LOVE how it turned out. I was inspired in the glaze layering and color choices by this excellent armoire redo from Savvy Southern Style. (I have been meaning to post a tutorial for a while, like 2 or 3 years, but it just never happened. Maybe this year's the one!)

 While I really do love how the finish looks like blue concrete and the wax makes it feel butter soft, the true beauty of this piece is the storage it provides. The two huge middle drawers store all the kid's craft supplies. The bottom center drawer holds all my table linens. In the dining room, where I use them! I know, right? The left side drawer holds office supplies and the right one holds my good silverware. And guess what fits in the side cabinet?

My sewing machine just slips right in here! Door closed and out of sight, but ready for action. Love it!

Excellent Idea #3: Repurpose an Industrial Etagere on Wheels

This idea I can't really claim. It just fell into my lap. 

I have a friend who knew someone in the design world who was going out of business. They had several of these for sale at a price so "I just need to dump this so I don't have to move it" low that I won't even share it. Even on last year's meager budget, I couldn't pass it up and bought two of them. They are solid steel with 2 fixed glass shelves and 2 movable shelves. I only have 1 of the movable shelves going at the moment. The only down side of this deal was not having enough shelf supports included. Eventually I will buy some more.

In the meantime, I am using them as a staging area for all the various things I am working on at the same time. I only have one primary work space in my studio and it gets really crowded and cluttered as I shift from project to project. Once I got these movable shelves, I put the "in process but not today" projects on the various shelves, to keep them out of the way, but not so far away that I forget to finish them. It works amazingly well. And I always have a clear work space.

At the moment I have the second one holding all the stuff that needs to be "dealt with"in the basement. Hopefully that will change soon, as I plan on getting rid of all that stuff and using this one to hold the toys the kids use the most. The wheels are an added bonus as the magnetic dart board sits right above these shelves. When the kids want to play darts, we just roll the shelves out of the way. It really is like magic.

So there you are. 

The three things in my home that have brought me the most peace 

through organization and functionality. Don't you love it when things actually work

as well or better than you hoped?

Will you guys leave me a comment and tell me what has worked in your home?

I am all curious what brilliant things you all have discovered.

Talk to you soon,

CM Shaw

Michael Sellmeyer: Things That Mostly Go Together

OK, last time we were hanging out,  we were talking about Lauren Boilini's Rabid Habits exhibit at the VisArts Center in the Rockville Town Center. And I took you through the exhibit and then got too excited and took you upstairs to calm down. (If you have no idea what I'm talking about, but would like to know, read this post.)Then I did something unexcusable. I left you. I said I was coming right back tomorrow. And then I didn't come back. For three days. Sorry about that.

So when we left off, I believe Anita, the volunteer coordinator, had directed us to the awesomely named "Paintings, Drawings, Prints, That Mostly Go Together" by Michael Sellmeyer.

Cloud of Consternation

I didn't really know what to expect here, as the only piece the Washington Post really described was called "Cloud of Consternation." I don't love "dark" art, so I was a bit trepedatious as I entered the exhibit that it would be full of angry black, scribbly paintings. Not really my thing. I looked around the corner and started smiling because I saw this:

The only dark piece in the show was the one the Post mentioned. Silly reporter.

The rest of it is fun, colorful, and/or engaging. Especially when you start looking at what he used to make them. Laser toner? It's there on the list for one of the pieces on this wall. 

Give me an unusual medium and I go from interested to riveted in about 2 seconds.

Let's take a closer look at the "toner" piece, shall we? It's actual title is Of That Ilk.

Can you see how laser toner could come into play here? Neither do I. Let's look closer.

detail Of That Ilk

I don't know enough about the medium to even recognize it in this usage. But I do know a but about the nature of the other mediums. "Acrylic, ink, graphite, laser toner, paper" are what Sellmeyer listed. The acrylic is the thicker chunks of color. I bet the ink is the colored runny stuff. I wonder if the graphite is the spots where the paint is scratched away? But the toner? I'm still not sure about that.

Hmmm. I wonder if there is another piece that could shed a little light here? Let's check out Sunshine Trot and Your Favorite Half.

Hmm..I still don't know. Let's take another close look at Your Favorite Half.

My guess is that the toner is the runny, lighter black rivulets. But that could also be ink.

Or maybe Sellmeyer printed a base design on the paper with his printer and then painted over it? I really have no idea. My best guess is the black, powdery runny stuff.

Isn't this fun? 

I LOVE trying to deconstruct what an artist did! 

 And the harder it is, the happier it makes me. 

Because that means I could never think of it. 

And if I would never think of it, it becomes far more interesting to me.

Wanna see my favorite piece in the whole show?

Agree To Melt

 

I love it. 

I wish I had the $500 to buy it. Seriously.

I would put it on the wall near my desk so I could look at it when I got stumped or bored. 

I think the appeal for me is a tie between the colors (aqua and cobalt blue and periwinkle and chartreuse are my absolute favorite colors! Especially when they are together.) and the technique. I would never have been able to even imagine this piece, let alone create it.

It might be the pencil lines. It looks like something my 6 year old used to do when she was 3. And I loved it there too. There is just such freedom and pleasant wandering in the piece.

As I kept looking around the show, I felt like I was missing something. So I decided to do the practical thing. I read the directions. Well, in this case, it was the artist's statement.

I was so impressed, I took a picture so I could read it again later.

 

His pieces are experiments in "What happens when I do X?" or more specifically "What happens when I use X to make this mark or to spread my paint or to scrape off my paint?" I love the freedom and exploration of that! It's so fun.

I am coming from a place where everything I've been working on is something I committed to a year or 3 ago. There has been very little exploration or spontaneity involved with my creations for a long, long time. 

The idea that the purpose of a piece was exploration hit me like a lightening bolt! 

I totally need to do this. In fact I have a few ideas brewing right now. They are nothing like Sellmeyer's stuff, and I have no idea when I'll get to them, but I think this philosophy may guide my work for the next while. I promise to keep you posted. I also have to warn you, it may be a while. I have to finish my taxes first.

The Good Empties

But wouldn't it be fun to use a bike wheel to paint something? Or stamp something? Just to see what happened? And then see if you could blow paint through a straw on top of it? Seriously, doesn't that sound so stinking fun? I feel like this man has opened a whole new vein into my creative subconscious.

detail A Slice of Twilight

And this, my friends, is why I like to go see other people's art. It seems to tap into my greater creative source and give it a poke. (That and I apparently love yearning to own things I can't afford. I swear I need to get a larger body of quality work, so I can start swapping with people.) I always get cool ideas when I see other people's stuff. And I'm not talking about stealing their ideas. It's a lot easier to recreate something that you have seen already made. I'm talking about taking a teensy idea from what I am seeing and using it in a completely new way. A way that even the artist I got the idea from wouldn't make the connection that their art was the inspiration. 

Seeing other people's art is often a gateway to the NEW for me. 

It gives me goosebumps just thinking about it. I really do have to be careful not to go too often if I'm in the middle of a complicated piece because it messes with what I am doing so often. Funny, huh.

Anyway, here's a bunch more of Sellmeyer's work. Just for fun, try to figure out what unusual tool he might have used to create each piece. I'll list the title and mediums to give you a head start.

Peer Stricken

Charcoal

The Sky is Done

Acrylic, ink, graphite

Ghost Diary

Woodcut

 Geometric Bliss

Acrylic, ink, graphite, laser toner, paper

So what did you guess? 

And what do you think when you see other people's art or projects? Leave me a comment and tell me what you think.

Talk to you soon,

CM Shaw

PS: There are one or two more things I want to show you from my VisArts visit. But you'll have to wait until next time. I'm not specifying this time. Life has a way of interrupting even my best intentions. And it's snowing, which means all kinds of mayhem here in VA.

For more info on the VisArts center, check their website here.

For more info on Michael Sellmeyer, see his website here.